


The Vanko debacle

by Mitsuky



Series: Awakening [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Big Canon Divergence - Iron Man 2, F/M, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Feels, Moving to Stark Tower, Osaka's Stark Tower, SHIELD, SHIELD purge, SI is a big family, Spies, Tony Stark Feels, Tony is a little shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:47:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24688615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mitsuky/pseuds/Mitsuky
Summary: Stark Tower opens its doors in New York. A spy appears. Tony takes down a gangster. SHIELD gets on his nerves some more. Oh, and someone tries to kill him, again!
Relationships: Christine Everhart/Tony Stark, Happy Hogan & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark
Series: Awakening [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769674
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I think I may have an idea of how to deal with 'Iron Man 2'. It took me a few days to think about what I wanted to do next, but here it is.
> 
> Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Wes discuss the humans trying to take Tony's stuff away without the right to. Moving to NY, Stark Tower is about ready to open for business. And a spy is discovered and SI deals with it their own way.

Tony returns to Malibu after many weeks at NY to make sure the tower is coming along nicely, and a short visit to DC to talk with Coulson about whatever it was SHIELD wanted from him that time; also, the Stark Expo’s launch is a success after a long and arduous time of preparation and he’s happy to see that more people than usual joined this year, so he arrives to the mansion content.

“Wake up, Daddy’s home,” he calls getting down his car and into his workshop. Everything turns on at a moments notice and the room illuminates brightly.

“Welcome home, sir. Congratulations on the opening ceremonies. They were such a success, as was your Senate hearing. And may I say how refreshing it is to finally see you in a video with your clothing on.”

Tony laughs, because, seriously, why does he have so many porn videos going around? Human Tony was a minx! As Jarvis lights the workshop, one of the screens immediately shows him the recording of the hearing and Wes wakes up from his nap in the corner of the room because of the noise and light.

“Da!” The drake exclaims and flies onto Tony’s chest. “Bro is really good with magic; I was able to teach him shapeshifting really quick. He can go flying with me now! We had a lot of fun!”

Tony smiles at the little dragon that starts making his way to the back of his head after a few pats on the back, and perches on Tony’s head like a baby koala.

“That’s good to hear,” Tony comments absentmindedly, his fingers tapping furiously on the keyboard while Wes purrs contentedly like a motorbike and massages his scalp.

> **_Stern:_ ** _Do you or do you not possess a specialised weapon?_
> 
> **_Tony:_ ** _I do not._

Wes turns his tiny head in the direction of the video playing in a nearby screen, snickering. “You’re so bad, da.”

“What?” Tony gasps with a hand over his chest, “I was saying but the truth!”

“If Iron Man isn’t a weapon then I’m not a dragon that can turn as big as this house.” Tony laughs.

> **_Stern:_ ** _The Iron Man weapon._
> 
> **_Tony:_ ** _My device does not fit that description. [...] It’s a high-tech prosthesis. That is… That is… That’s actually the most apt description I can make of it._

“A prosthesis, really?” Wes turns his head to look Tony in the eyes with a mischievous smirk with too many teeth in show. “How is your armour as prosthesis exactly?”

Tony rolls his eyes, “First and foremost, without the arc reactor the armour is a dead husk of 225lbs. No common man can move in the suit without a rigorous and specialized training, like Olympic athletes for example; so, even if I gave them the suit they’d need to train someone especially with the capability of lifting the armour in mind, _and then_ it’d only work as an overly-complex metal armour for them because I’m not giving them the design of the miniaturized arc reactor too. Secondly, since father and I worked in the improved reactor, there is also the magic factor added to the suit, which makes the Mark VII and beyond useless for anyone unable to wave magic, even if they had a power source to replace the reactor to begin with. I can make do without the armour since I’m all but immortal, but the humans don’t know that, so it’s my mortal’s disguise ‘prosthesis’.”

Wes cocks his head, “It’s a cool armour though you don’t need it.”

Tony grins, “Thanks!”

> **_Tony:_ ** _Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending or what state you’re in. You can’t have it._

“That guy...What’s his name?”

“Senator Stern?” Jarvis supplies helpful.

“Right, that guy. He reminds me of grandfather… practically demanding you give him your creation when he doesn’t have any right to it. You created it, it’s yours not his.”

Tony shrugs, “It's a common trait of people, fearing what they don’t know… desiring for themselves what isn’t theirs… But Zeus, I think, is used to getting whatever he asks of father and that’s why he expected me to do the same without complaints.”

“Ass.”

“Yep.”

> **_Justin Hammer:_ ** _Absolutely. I’m no expert. I defer to you, Anthony. You’re the wonder boy. Senator, if I may[...]_

“Ugh, it’s that guy again!” Wes scoffs at the screen, a small puff of smoke coming out of his mouth. “Uncle has terrible taste in coupling partners.”

Tony snorts, patting Wes’ head until the drake calms and stops breathing smoke to the screen threateningly. He keeps typing and coding a few configurations for the new armour while Jarvis disassembles Mark III in the back of the workshop, in his astral form.

His physical form was a hard thing to come by in the beginning, when Wes proposed Jarvis learned to project a body in the physical world. Jarvis had to decide first what he wanted to look like, body built, eyes, hair colour, if he felt like taking on a humanoid form at all or something else… Wes and Jarvis worked on all of those details while Eros and Tony travelled for months in search of information on Hela.

The result, when Tony returned, was the man like ghost standing in the room waiting for him. Honey brown hair, golden eyes, tall and slim body… Jarvis is like the perfect blend between human and God Tony.

> **_Stern:_ ** _I have before me a complete report on the Iron Man weapon, complied by Colonel Rhodes. And, Colonel, for the record, can you please read page 57, paragraph four? [...]_

“I keep on thinking that guy is a dick. To put Uncle Rhodey in that position…” Wes shakes his head from side to side, scoffing and releasing a small flame in his anger for his new uncle.

> **_Rhodey:_ ** _Very well. “As he does not operate within any definable branch of government, Iron Man presents a potential threat to the security of both the nation and to her interests.” I did however, go on to summarise that the benefits of Iron Man far outweigh three liabilities and that it would be in our interest…_
> 
> **_Stern:_ ** _That’s enough Colonel_
> 
> **_Rhodey:_ ** _…to fold Mr Stark…_
> 
> **_Stern:_ ** _That’s enough_
> 
> **_Rhodey:_ ** _…into the existing chain of command, Senator._
> 
> **_Tony:_ ** _I’m not a joiner, but I’ll consider Secretary of Defence, if you ask nice._

Wes laughs, “Uncle Rhodey is my new favourite. Don’t tell uncle Eros, da.”

Tony smiles at his son, “Cross my heart.”

> **_Tony:_ ** _If you will direct your attention to said screens, I believe that’s North Korea._
> 
> _[...]_
> 
> **_Stern:_ ** _Can you turn that off? Take it off._
> 
> **_Tony:_ ** _Iran._
> 
> _[...]_
> 
> **_Tony:_ ** _No grave threat here. Is that Justin Hammer? How did Hammer get in the game? Justin, you’re on TV. Focus up._
> 
> **_TV Justin:_ ** _Okay, give me a left twist. Left’s good. Turn to the right. Oh, shit. Oh, shit._
> 
> **_Tony:_ ** _Wow. Yeah, I’d say most countries, five, ten years away. Hammer Industries, twenty._

Cackling laugh fills the workshop over the noise of the people talking in the video. “What a waste of time,” Wes clicks his tongue.

“Tell me about it,” Tony rolls his eyes.

> **_Tony:_ ** _I’ve successfully privatised world peace!_

“Was that really necessary though?” Wes asked, looking as the Tony in the screen walked out of the courtroom with a dramatic last speech to the cameras.

“While human and without memories, I’ve created this image of a ‘diva’ that I must keep up. I’m changing it slowly, but it’s going to take some time.”

“Human Tony Stark sounds funny,” Wes snickers.

“Yeah,” Tony grimaces, “Not my best of years those…” Tony finishes coding and waits for the rendering of the new armour to appear. “Anyway, have you prepared your stuff?”

Wes growls softly, “Yeah…”

“We are leaving in two days for New York, Wess. I’m not repeating myself again, go pack your shit.”

“Yes da,” the dragon grumbles and flies away.

Tony looks at him with fondness until his son disappears up the stairs, “What a brat.”

* * *

Tony walks into the living room of the new Stark Tower and greets his friends. After planning the moving for years, fighting with the previous owners of the old building who didn’t want to sell, and finally getting the construction started months ago, here they are. Champagne ready and waiting on the coffee table, he grabs a thin flute, and smiling at the others they make a toast.

“I can’t believe it’s finally happening,” Rhodey said with a smile and turned to Happy. “How is the training going by the way?”

“He’s driving everyone up the walls,” Pepper comments, sharing a smile with Tony while Happy starts an in-depth explanation.

“I never thought he’d take it even more seriously,” Tony sits next to Pepper, grabbing a portion of the pizza from the box. “I’m paying for two more martial instructors as of this morning.”

“If I’m to be in charge of security, I’ll make sure to keep everyone safe to the best of my abilities,” Happy replies haughtily before cracking a grin at Rhodey, “Besides, you know better than anyone how hard is to keep the Boss safe.” They laugh together while Tony adopts a playful wounded expression and snarks back at the pair.

They continue eating and drinking the champagne, the news of the soon to be opening of Stark Tower announcing on the TV in the background. It was hard work, but oh so worth it. With their continued growth they needed the space, without counting on the new branch of Stark Industries International that will be opening soon and the number of new employees the company needs for the new projects they have in motion.

“Sir?” Jarvis calls when there is a lull in the conversation.

“What is it, J?”

The TV’s news changes abruptly to the camera of one elevator with a redhead beauty in it.

“I’ve scanned every new arrival for dangerous and or spying devices as they made their way to their new residences; like you instructed, Sir. Miss Rushman has several of them in her person and others in the boxes being delivered by the moving company, including but not restricted to just one phone bug, dagger, handgun and bullets, among other assorted fighting gear and devices.”

“First name?” Tony asks while Pepper, Happy and Rhodey comment on the news between themselves in hushed whispers.

“Natalie, Sir.”

Pepper gasps, “I remember her now! I thought she looked familiar, but I know now she’s from the legal team. One of the few who worked in the paperwork to transfer everything to me as the new CEO, Tony!” She tells him with worry.

“Humm, something smells fishy,” Rhodey frowns.

“Got anything boss?” Happy asks looking at Tony attentively.

“Yeah,” Tony turns around the tablet he had on his hand and shows them the profile of Natalia Alianovna Romanova. “It seems that I’ll have to keep up the facade of the diva even around my own damn building. SHIELD is really starting to get on my nerves.”

Pepper and Rhodey read the profile from the SHIELD database, with Happy standing behind them and making an ugly face at the tablet.

“Spy, assassin, KGB, the Red Room, enhanced human… What the hell is SHIELD, boss?”

Tony sighs, “Howard and aunt Peggy founded them during the war, is a secret agency controlled by a group called the Security Council that no one knows exactly who they are. Most likely members of the government.” Tony shrugs at them, “Don’t worry, I’ll deal with them. Just make sure you don’t give up that you know about her when you cross paths with the woman,” he points for Pepper and Happy.

“Corporate espionage,” Pepper tsks with distaste.

“We aren’t even open yet and they already started,” Rhodey scoffs, refilling everyone’s glasses. “This is why I liked LA better.”

Tony smiles toothily, earning their amusement in return. “Let’s show SHIELD what the Stark Industries crew is made of,” he proposes, raising his flute of champagne.

“Cheers!” Rhodey shouts with renewed happiness.

“Let’s show them,” Pepper smiles deviously.

Happy raises a fist in the air, “For our family!”

A crash sounds in the distance and Wes appears a moment later in a flutter of wings, “Wait! Me too!”

The four friends laugh as the drake shapeshifts and steals one of the free glasses, Eros hot on his heels.

“You fiend!” Eros shouts strutting after Wes, “The champagne is for adults, the apple juice is in the fridge!” And with a light tap of his knuckles on the head of the young dragon, Wes runs away with a laugh and making fun of his uncle.

* * *

“Hello, Eli,” Tony greets the receptionist, approaching her once the lobby is free of new arrivals.

“Morning, Boss!” The blond replies with a fond smile. “What can I do for you?”

Tony clears his throat, laughing a little and trying to downplay his flustered state, “I wanted to ask about the cookies actually-”

The blond raises her hands, shaking her head, “Sorry Tony, that’s grandma’s secret receipt, I know nothing about it. Even mom has to ask for cookies when she wants some. You’ll have to pay grandma a visit if you want more,” Eli explains with a smirk in answer to Tony’s pout.

Tony sighs a moment later, defeated, “Okay.” He accepts the small note with the address and adopts a more serious look, “Thanks, Eli. I’ll pay grandma Sue a visit. Now, about something else…” She gets closer when he motions with his finger and they gossip for a moment like two old women.

When Eli takes a step back, her face is hardened and fury dances in her eyes, “Don’t worry, Tony. I’ll make sure everyone knows.”

“Thanks,” Tony winks at the woman, stepping aside as someone else approaches, “Have a nice day, Miss Smith.”

“You too, Mr Stark.”

Tony walks away, taking notice of the address Eli wrote down for him. With a short look to check the hour on his watch, he decides to go down to the garage instead of back to the penthouse, Brooklyn isn’t that far anyway. Maybe he can convince grandma Sue to bake some more delicious butter cookies for him if he takes her out for lunch. Wes, the brat, ate all of them in the middle of the night and Tony only got to taste the two remaining cookies that morning with his coffee. He fell in love with grandma Sue’s butter cookies with only one bite!

That woman really has a good hand for baked goodies, her tiramisu is also the best he’s ever had and Tony isn’t ashamed to ask Eli to bring some more wherever she can.

When he returns, he can start working on the servers here in the tower, and putting the final set of protections around Jarvis’ core if he insists on staying down there. SHIELD isn’t going to take him by surprise again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Jarvis have a fluffy moment together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote way more than this, but I cut the chapter where it felt right to. Expect more tomorrow. ☺
> 
> Enjoy!

Tony puts the screwdriver in his mouth and connects the final wiring in place, closes the lid of the server and screws it shut. Finished with the updates, control, fixing and cleaning of the servers, he redirects the energy back into the room by activating the switch on the back wall. As the lights turn on, he gets rid of the flashlight and puts all the tools back in the box.

“Okay, that’s the last of them,” he says cleaning the sweat from his fringe with a rag and standing. “You ready for this, Jarvis?”

“As always, Sir,” Jarvis replies dutifully.

“Have you decided what you’ll prefer then, J?”

A humming comes from the speakers, they are a recent development to Jarvis, he’s now able to react more like a person since the magic has given him a little extra to learn quicker. “I think…” a small pause, something else that became usual as of late, “I think I’d like to remain as I am, for now, Sir.”

“You sure you don’t want me to build you a body, pal? It’s no trouble,” Tony shrugs the tools off to the floor and opens the server with Jarvis’ core in it. “I mean, in comparison to creating a soul, as I did for DUM-E while I was blackout drunk, creating a body is a walk in the park.”

“I feel safer in the knowledge that I can accompany you wherever you go and at the same time look after the others if the need were ever to arise, Sir. A body would be very restrictive in that regard. And what about all the safety measures I have to keep watch over in the tower-”

“Jarvis,” Tony says suddenly, cutting the AI off, and with hardness colouring his voice, “I’m asking what you want, not what is more convenient for me or anyone else. You, buddy. What do you want? Forget about anything and everyone else.”

Silence is Tony’s answer for a long while. He shrugs it off and continues working on the cleaning of the final piece of Jarvis’ coding to be implemented, shutting down little by little all of Jarvis’ active protocols until only the most basics of them remain.

“It’s time,” Tony hums, finger waiting over the enter button, “What is it going to be?”

“I-... I wish to remain like this. At least for a little longer, father.”

Tony jumps a little, and like all the previous times Jarvis called him that, he smiles dumbly to the air for a couple of seconds. Wess has been influencing Jarvis greatly in the last months, making the AI grow faster than ever before as the dragon challenges him to learn something new every day as he wants to do something or another with his brother; to the point, that hearing Wesson calling Tony ‘father’ or more like ‘da’ became the norm, and Jarvis started to use it sometimes too.

Tony sighs, “Very well. We’ll return to the topic in the future when you change your mind then. Good night, J.”

“Good night, Sir.”

Tony presses enter and the last of Jarvis’ protocols and consciousness turn off. The golden shine of his aura still gleams around the core as Tony takes a look at it, but not as bright since he’s sleeping. He sighed once more and with a roll of his eyes, because of his stubborn children, starts working on the new coding Jarvis and Tony put together in the last month since another maintenance to the server was in order and what better time to take care of it than when they’re already moving it from Malibu to NY.

With careful movements, and after the longest half an hour in his life, Tony takes the core in his hands and is filled with the sense of deja-vu for a very long and emotional moment. He blinks his eyes as he recalls old memories back to the front of his mind with shocking strength. He’ll never admit it, but at that moment, Tony remembered the first time he held in his arms a scaly new-born Wesson and choked on a sob that tore out of his stunned mouth. Looking at the orange orb and running his fingers over it with tenderness, Tony let himself get overwhelmed for a few minutes by the strong emotions drowning him by the simple act of holding his son in his arms for the first time. He’s almost forgotten what it felt like when Wes broke out of the egg and crawled in his arms that first time, over a thousand years ago.

He breaks out of the moment when the pulsing and warm white magic envelopes him in a hug. Tony laughs and cleans his face of the tears, smiling down and admiring the pure tendrils of white magic, and how apt is it for Jarvis to have that very one-of-a-kind energy colour that proves his purity and genuine soul, move and prove all around his own, almost as if Jarvis was unconsciously trying to soothe him. He’ll have to ask him later…

Another two hours go on before Tony is finished with the new update and reboots Jarvis’ system, after he relocated the core into the new and more advanced server. He observes the screen like a hawk while the systems restart one by one, the server’s lights flicking into life and a soft hum filling the room.

“Restarting all systems,” Jarvis announces and finally Tony is able to relax, smiling to the nearest camera and waving a hand.

“Did you have pleasant dreams, J?” Tony asks out of custom, not really waiting for an answer as he quickly turns his attention back to his task, but is surprised when one actually arrives.

“Actually…” Jarvis says tentatively, “I have the oddest of feelings. Or I think I did? But I was off, how can this be possible? Sir? Is there a problem with my systems? I seem to have recorded memories that shouldn’t be there as I was offline during that expanse of time…”

“Oh,” Tony mumbles, stunned. “I may have an idea about it, but I wasn’t sure you’ll remember…”

“Why do I have in my records that you were crying, Sir? Are you alright? Is anything the matter? How do I know this?”

“Okay, Jarvis-”

“I think I’m confused, Sir.”

Tony turns a worried look to Jarvis’ core, where the white magic sizzles in disturbance the more Jarvis rambles.

“Jarvis, calm down-” Tony says, but the AI continues talking in confusion, running scans, and then some more when he doesn’t get an answer that satisfies him. “Jarvis!” Tony shouts when the magic suddenly spikes out of control and he has to raise a shield to protect the servers from the wild magic. “Everything is alright Jarvis, but you need to calm down!”

“What… what did just happen?” The AI asks sounding shocked. “What was that?” A beat of silence and then, “Father, are you alright?!”

“Enough!” Tony said with strength, letting the shock melt off him and using a tone of voice he usually leaves for Wes when the young dragon misbehaves, but it does the trick as the magic returns to the soft shimmering waves surrounding Jarvis’ core, even almost shily hugging Jarvis' heart. “Remember that you have magic now, Jarvis. You control it, but if you lose control of yourself then so does your magic reacts wildly.”

After a few seconds of silence, Tony’s golden shield retreats and he sighs, sliding down to the floor against the metal wall of the server at his back. They don’t speak for a while, but Tony turns his head in surprise when a thin white tendril moves slowly next to his shoulder. He smiles at it and lets his own grow a thing wiggling appendage out of his body and softly ‘tap’ the other. This goes on for a moment, until Tony lets his magic close to Jarvis’ core and a sudden laugh surprises him coming from the speakers.

“Jarvis! You’re ticklish?!” Tony laughs, trying a few more times and getting the same result.

“Ah! Please, please, no more!” Jarvis begs and the two keep laughing for a short minute. “Sir… what is this?”

“This is you growing more aware of your magic, J. And growing in general…” Tony lets the white tendril poke him around a bit more. “The more familiar you have grown with it, the easier it is for you to feel your surroundings. It’s almost like developing another sense, really.”

“Astounding…” Jarvis tells him later, with a breathlessness that never before came from the speakers and makes Tony feel all warm inside.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stark Industries' doesn't care much about spies. But, that doesn't mean they take to it lightly. It just that...they have their own method to make the spies give up.
> 
> Tony has fun messing around with the last someone trying to worm their way into his business, pockets, or whatever it is that the SHIELD spy is trying to accomplish.

Tony has many encounters along the month with one Natalie Rushman. Or so she wishes.

One day Tony visits the nursery to make sure everything is okay and the nannies have everything they need to keep the kids busy. He isn’t heartless, he knows many of his employees have families, so when lots of them are faced with the possibility of going through a long period of time away from their respective partners and children since most of the offices were moved to NY, Tony decided to add clauses to their contracts so their families were able to relocate to NY along with said employees. At the same time, many of their partners became SI workers since not all of them could leave their previous jobs and find new ones just like that; that was a big point of discussion between him a Pepper as it made the tower grow taller as the demand of space grew exponentially because of his decision.

That day, as Tony plays with the kids for a while and talks with Sandra, one of the nannies and the partner to Robert who works in security, Natalie walked into the room and talked with another of the personnel in charge. Since Natalie works with the paralegal team of SI, she moves all over the tower to take care of her job. Tony laughed the first time he read about her, but also was able to appreciate Fury’s planning. In her post, Agent Romanova will be able to try and engage him no matter which part of the building he happens to visit as she has access to almost all of them, with the excuse of needing to contact someone else residing wherever Tony happens to be she’d be able to catch his attention, or so he imagines their thought process was.

Mentally snorting, Tony keeps playing with the kid and avoids turning in the direction of the redhead, enjoying the moment the woman leaves with an angry huff as her excuses to be there run out and she must leave or create suspicion from her co-workers. Tony laughs harder at it but has a good cover as the kid in front of him squeals loudly as Tony fakes dead for him.

Three days later he’s visiting the entertainment floors when Natalie makes her second apparition in so many days. He was there because a few teenagers were playing some games of dancing and one of the platforms stopped working. As it was past eight, the repairmen were all back to their apartments and out of duty, but Tony was free and bored so he decided to go himself instead of disturbing one of his employees’ evening. It’s not like he likes _Dance Dance Revolution_ and felt like playing a few songs with the kids, not at all.

Fixing the platform was a child's game, pun intended, and the kids cheered in thanks with many ‘thank you uncle Tony’s when he finished, letting him hop over the waiting list and dance three songs before he left. He wasn’t an expert, but Maria put him on dancing lessons for many years when he was a brat himself and he knew his moves. They cheered all the louder when he danced his way to the tenth top score on the first song, and he almost missed a step when the second song started and he noticed the spy standing nearby with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. By the end of the third song, he was approached by Greg and saved from having to acknowledge the woman as he took Tony away under the pretence of some kind of urgent thing needing his attention.

He loves his employees.

And if Greg gets an updated Starkphone before he was due, well, it was obviously someone else's doing, not Tony’s. Of course not.

The third time ‘Rushman’ walked into the room Tony was at, it was a few minutes after he did, and he was too tired after a long week of meetings and discussions with the board to pay too much attention to her. He continued warming up with Happy and joking around until he was ready for the training.

Usually, he trains in his private gym at the penthouse, but today he felt like seeking to visit Happy and witness first-hand the ‘torturous’ training of sensei Sato; and maybe get one or two new moves to add to his repertoire. So, here he was, on underground floor nine ready to get his ass kicked while posing human in front of a spy when he could be getting something out of sensei Sato’s lesson if she were to fuck off for once!

André, another trainer, works with Rushman and some other employees on their self-defence classes, agreed upon on the contracts for everyone working for SI. Tony observes how the spy works alongside the rest with a frustrated aura surrounding her and tries to get some insight on Tony but gets none, as he’s but listening to sensei Sato’s instructions and demonstrations of some moves to start with. Natalie will have to upgrade her strategy if she wants to get anywhere near him around SI, he has after all over a thousand employees ready to derail her attempts of getting closer to spy on him all over the tower.

He stands when the sensei calls his name and practices the motions under the assessing gaze of the man, getting corrections to his posture and some useful tips. Natalie observes all the while until her time with André is over and must leave.

Finally, Tony can start his real training once she’s gone.

For the rest of the month, Tony avoids her to the best of his abilities and with the highly appreciated help of his loyal employees. After three weeks in a row of avoiding her, the woman starts to make it quite obvious for a legendary ‘Black Widow’. Maybe he shouldn’t be enjoying it, but he does.

It all ends up disappointingly with them ‘meeting’ anyway when the woman presents her CV to Pepper when they’re searching for a PA for him, now that Pepper took the position of CEO. Tony has the final word about it though, but he has to meet her anyway to interview the woman just as he’s doing for the other two Pepper put a pass on.

The first candidate is a young brunette with a soft face and apparent easy demeanour that betrays you into a false sense of relaxation and belief of knowing her when she’s actually very confident and has a frosty attitude that keeps you at arm's length as he realized after only a couple of minutes talking with her; the second prospect is an older blond woman, but not above her thirties he’d like to think, and a very professional person that takes on his introductory flirting with all the grace in the world, but still keeps a healthy distance even as they joke around; and then it’s Natalie’s turn, who makes the previous two women look like a joke in comparison, not that that makes him like her.

Natalie’s ‘yes, sir’ attitude is something old—Tony would have liked and try to play around until he got her in his bed, but Hephrodistus is different and likes his partners entirely willing, not just there as mere means to an end; that is one of the few reasons that has kept him at a distance from the many people throwing themselves at him in the past months; he’d like to think it never was this bad but, as the God of Pleasure, it’s something that he’s more than used to and learned to dislike.

Tony’s forty-first birthday party, at Stark Tower and with all of the employees living there invited, goes off without a hitch. Natalie makes an appearance, walks around, drinks a little, glares suspiciously, and disappears close to midnight. If he’s lucky, she’ll get orders to leave soon enough, this cat and mouse game is getting old.

* * *

Charmaine Katsaros, the blond Pepper sent Tony’s way, was the one to finally make it to the post of his PA. The woman speaks four languages including English and has a history of working with other famous heads of important corporations before. In fact, her last job was as Hammer’s PA until she put a lawsuit against him for sexual harassment three months ago and started jumping from job to job until the opportunity of working for him came up.

She learned about the open post from her friend who works as Tony’s lawyer already, and as she was recommended to Pepper by someone from SI, she passed the usually very stressing first interviews with an ease that surprised the woman when she found herself in front of Tony not long after. Until she read the contract he presented to her a week after her final interview with him.

To say SI’s contracts are tightly woven, with lots of very entangled and detailed explanations of the repercussions people will face is they commit corporate espionage, is putting it mildly.

But the benefits far outweigh the little doubt those details in the contract may give anyone and usually they end up signing, which the woman did.

Charm, as Tony decided to call her, started to work with him after a long and tedious debriefing of all SI related stuff she’ll have to pass to him, the endless galas and meetings he still has to attend, and the people to ‘lookout for’ in the good and bad ways. Her smile couldn’t have been happier when she learned about the real Miss Romanova and why the redhead didn’t get the post.

After only a couple of interactions between him and the woman, and after watching a record from her tearing a hole in Romanova’s excuses when the woman got too close to him, he decided he liked her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanko attacks but is dealt with swiftly, unlike canon, told you there'd be changes with God!Tony playing around; remaker is found and acquired; and Christine and Tony _talk_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my, today's chapter is _long!_ I tried fixing it to the best of my abilities, but if there are any mistakes let me know.
> 
> Enjoy!

Tony was in the middle of a meeting in Japan, talking with the contractors working for them in building the Stark Tower in Osaka, that’ll be almost as tall as Tokyo Tower, when he got news on his phone from Jarvis. The Monaco Grand Prix will start in an hour or so and the people is getting ready for the show. But, amongst the spectators resides the signal of one of the Makluan rings and Jarvis tells him the signal stopped moving for half an hour already. It is the perfect place to try and get it, considering the holder never came out of his hiding place in the middle of ass-nowhere-Russia in all the time since Tony started tracking the others, and at the news, the souls hanging from his neck start humming in restlessness.

Good thing he has a reservation at the event since one of his cars is participating in the race; he wasn't planning to attend, but this changes things now.

Thankfully, the meeting is almost over, only the formalities remain to be seen and he’s as good as done. On any other occasion, he’d stay to have sake with the people when they ask him, but he has more pressing issues at the moment. He gives his excuses and smiles charmingly, leaving the building where the negotiation took place with a surprised Pepper in tow.

“Last time I checked you didn’t have anything else to take care of, Tony. What is going on?” She asks once they’re safely tucked in the car, with the separating glass raised for privacy and Charm looking in silence.

“Remember those souls, solidified and trapped, that I told you about? Jarvis just caught one in the Monaco Grand Prix that I was supposed to be at. It’s the one that never leaves Russia and I won’t get a better chance to get it.”

Charm raises an eyebrow; that and her rapid intake of air are the only physical give away she has to show her surprise. Tony really likes her.

He explained to her the simple aspects of his odd quirks and eccentricities, that he’s a God, a little magic trick made her stop looking ready to call the nuthouse and put them on his case, and an explanation of what happens in some of his labs and to avoid walking inside unannounced for her own safety were given. She took to the craziness that is his life with surprising speed. Even Pepper was surprised. And after giving her a free day to go to the spa, relax, and come to terms with her new reality, Charm took to working as his PA without a single problem.

“You’re leaving,” Pepper scowls, “But we got reservations for that sushi place you like and very rarely can go to. It took me literally months to get a table, Tony!”

“I know,” Tony gives her a lopsided smirk, “And I’m really sorry, Pep, but it’s now or never. Take Charm in my place and have a relaxing girl’s night together, you more than deserve it.”

With a kiss on her cheek to hopefully calm his friend, and a wink Charm’s way, Tony disappears from the car only to make a sudden appearance in the luckily deserted bathroom at the prix. Jarvis oh so helpfully supplied him with a picture of it along with more information about his possible target after scanning the entire facilities.

Steps beyond the door grow nearer so he puts the phone away, walks in front of the mirrors, and acts as if he was just finishing in there; a kid and whom he presumes is the father walks into the bathroom.

“Oh my G-” The kid chokes and the father looks at him worried, patting the kid’s back, “Iron man!”

Tony turns around with a blinding smile, “Hello!”

“Mr Stark, please, can I have a picture-”

“A picture with me? Sure can do, but not here. I mean, a bathroom, really kid? This is a prix, well go take a picture with my racing car. No, I insist. Come on.”

Spluttering, the kid and the father follow him as Tony walks around the place and out in the open, where preparations are taking place for the start of the race.

“Hey, Kaleo, buddy!” Tony greets the driver and hugs him with one arm, talking nonsense as they get close to Tony’s car and the waiting teenager. “Kaleo is going to join us for the picture if you want, kid,” Tony tells the kid with a wink, who answers with a frantic nod and a wide smile, and they pose together for the father with the phone ready to take a shot. The kid looks about ready to combust with emotion as they smile at his father. “Oh, you too? Okay, let's do it!” He takes it in stride when the parent also steamers a question to get a picture and Tony agrees. They leave then, thanking him profusely. “Good luck out there, Kaleo!” He says before leaving.

“Thank you, Mr Stark,” the driver says after Tony pats him on the back a final time and walks back to the party to find his target.

“Elon, how’s it going. Those Merlin engines are fantastic,” Tony said walking almost into the man when he returned to the salon.

“Thank you. Yeah, I’ve got an idea for an electric jet,” Elon returns in a fast-paced wording just like Tony's, knowing about his short-span attention.

“You do?” Tony blinks through his ‘yeah’ and continues, “Then we’ll make it work.”

Elon nods and turns back to the person he was talking to as Tony walks away and continues talking with people in the way to the bar.

His target turns out to be a very famous someone, and he looks at the man sitting at a table with surprise from the reflection on the mirror behind the barman. The man is the most famous mafia boss from Russia ever, a hermit, a self-declared sociopath, very paranoid (and with reason), and Tony’s lucky to have this chance to get the ring form him. The police will have to work extra tomorrow after Tony’s done with the guy, he thinks and can't help the chuckle that escapes his lips.

Sometime later, the race starts and Tony watches from one of the many big screens around the place how it goes, while the barman puts another glass in front of him. He was just fine, waiting for the data about his target that Jarvis was hacking, but then he gets interrupted.

“Anthony. Is that you?”

Breath, Tony. In and out. He checks the phone, to make sure Jarvis’ search goes fine one final time and then turns to the new arrivals sitting close to him.

“Hey, pal,” Justin says as he takes the stool to Tony’s right and he turns with his press smile #5.

“Justin Hammer,” Tony says, scowl almost slipping over his face. Damn this is hard.

“How you doing? You’re not the only rich guy here with a fancy car. You know Christine Everhart from Vanity Fair. You guys know each other?”

Christine appears, standing between them and smiles at Tony.

“Hi. Yes. Mr Stark.”

“Christine!” Tony smiles more enthusiastically this time, a real smile. Surprising her with a kiss on her cheek. “You look beautiful, Miss Everhart.”

“Oh, okay-” Hammer stammer next to them. “BTW, big story. The new CEO of Stark Industries. Where is the lovely Miss Potts?”

“My editor will kill me if I don’t grab a quote for our Powerful Women issue…” Christine comments, also looking around the room expectantly.

Both of them turn around with quizzical looks when Pepper is nowhere to be found and Tony snickers.

“Sorry, Pepper is not here. She’s in Japan at the moment. You know how it is,” he turns to tells Justin with sass, “Expanding the company, closing on contracts. Exhausting stuff.”

“Yeah… yes, of course.”

“Oh,” Christine exclaims in a downed mood.

“She’s actually doing a big spread on me for Vanity Fair," Justin says ignoring the awkward ambient like a champ. "I thought I’d throw her a bone, you know. Right?” Justin returns in force, but Christine smiles weakly and looks uncomfortable.

“Right. Well, she did quite a spread on me last year.” Tony sips his whiskey, winking at her conspiratorially and she smiles back. “And she wrote a story as well. It was very impressive, very well done.”

“Thank you.” Christine...blushes? Tony is so going to tease her about it! “Listen, is it the first time you’ve seen each other since the Senate?” She recovers masterfully, and Tony recognises the change of subject for what it is. Maybe they can have dinner together? If everything goes fine with his project later…

“Since he got his contract revoked…?” Tony acts sheepishly, “By the way, sorry about that, but I had seriously no idea you were going to appear on those tasteless videos, Justin.”

“Actually, it’s on hold,” Hammer mumbles, apparently surprised by his apology.

“You sound surprised,” Tony cocks his head, “I admit I look the type, but I’m not actually a jerk, you know?” He shrugs their surprised looks with another press smile.

“Thank you, Tony,” Justin continues, stumbling on his own words. “No. It’s fine. We’re fine. It’s on hold so don’t worry.”

“Okay, I won’t.” Tony may not be working out of his normal timeframe to make things hard for him, but he doesn’t care either so…

“Why don’t we put that away? Let’s put that away. The truth is, I’m actually hoping to present something at your Expo,” he recovers, finally, and Tony and Christine share a surprised sideways glance at that unexpected comment.

“Well,” Tony clears his throat, “If you have something new to show, I’ll make sure I get you a slot.”

“Mr Stark?” A waitress interrupts and Tony’s ready to claim his eternal devotion to her for the save.

“Yes?”

“Your corner table is ready, sir.” Bless her! Tony smiles and nods his thanks to the waitress, standing and finishing his whiskey…

Ups. Did he just actually bless the woman? Crap…

“I actually have a slot this year. Yes, I do.” Don’t pat your back so quickly pal, Tony thinks as he catches Christine’s vicious smile aimed at the blond. You have to survive her first.

But, freaking out about throwing his powers around willy-nilly all of a sudden and laughing at Justin, Tony never notices the hubbub raising around. Only returning back to the present from his short-lived panic when Justin squeals shrilly as a whip of electricity lands between him and Tony’s retreating form, the barstool Tony was using just three seconds ago fall to the floor cut almost half and half, and the screaming starts all over the place.

The attack takes Tony by surprise. One moment it’s all fine and dandy, and the next there is a crazy guy using what looks like arc reactor tech to whip his way into the hotel and ruin the party. For the Graces, how he hates party poopers!

Jumping over the bar countertop, Tony has time to take MK-VIII out of his pocket dimension and suit up. The sleek design of the portable version of his suits is a work of art that Jarvis and Wes worked on together, it lacks firepower as it only has the repulsors and shoulder guns, and it clearly has Olympian armour designs that provably Wes thought to be a nice touch. But, the suit is meant as a last resort option in case of, like right now, getting attacked in the middle of a crowded space, so the lack of power isn’t much of a problem because he can easily make up for it by using his own strength and fight hand to hand with ease as the armour is more manoeuvrable than other iterations of it.

The scared barman looks at him in awe when the armour folds around him, nodding harshly when Tony puts a finger over his lips as he used magic in front of the man, but hopefully, he won’t recognise it. Another whip cuts the bar and Tony waves the barman away, who crawls away hurriedly.

Tony stands from behind the bar and a whip wounds it way around his arm and stops his attack, then the other in rapid succession, and soon after he’s flying out of a window. Thankfully his reflexes are as good as always and he stabilizes the suit before he falls on top of someone on the audience underneath and crushes them to death. Tony flies in a small loop and watches the man continue his destruction until there is a big hole on the wall of the hotel. He aims and shoots repulsor blasts, but the man continuously stops them with the whips.

The audience records the action and encourages him to take down the crazy guy while security makes them retreat to a safe distance.

Sparks fly everywhere and start causing more damage than necessary, starting small fires around the hotel’s salon, and worried about it growing out of control, Tony shots in the guy’s direction with purpose, flying closer and letting him get one of his whips to catch around his foot to take him along for the ride when he turns around and flies away. Better to ruin the fountain outside than burn down Hotel de Paris, it’s not worth the possible anger of Berny.

A sudden ringing cuts his musings as he sends a final blow on the crazy man maybe five minutes later. He lowers in front of crazy whip guy and tears the reactor from his chest, looking at it with confusion and curiosity while Jarvis connects the call.

“Tony!” Comes the shout from the connection, “Who is that madman that ruined my hotel?!”

“Oh, hey buddy. I was just thinking about you… and, I have no idea.”

In the background, the crazy guy of the day screams and laughs maniacally as the police march him away.

“Do you hear that? He’s insane!” Tony snorts.

“Tony,” Berny sighs in the phone, “That bastard just ruined my hotel. Make sure he gets a nice long time in jail, okay? I’m very pissed off right now. I need to contact the manager ASAP...”

“Done and done. Don’t twist your knickers, Berny. I’ve got it covered,” Tony reassures his friend and manager of the hotel's chain.

* * *

“We ran his prints. We got nothing back, not even a name,” The French investigator comments to him as they walk along the rows of holding cells with a group of policemen behind them for security. Tony nods, not expecting anything less since the guy actually attacked him. “Over there. We’re not even sure he understands us. He hasn’t said a word since he got here.”

“Five minutes,” Tony request with a perfect French.

“Five minutes.” The man nods at him and closes the door behind Tony.

The cell is a dreary grey thing, dark and musty. The man sits with his back to Tony, naked except for some white underwear, and the cameras film his every move from the four corners of the room.

“Pretty decent tech. Cycles per second were a little low. You could have doubled up your rotations. You focused the repulsor energy through ionised plasma channels. It’s effective. Not very efficient. But it’s a passable knock-off. I don’t get it. A little fine-tuning and you could have made a solid paycheck. You could have sold it to North Korea, China, Iran, or go onto the black market. You look like you got friends in low places.”

He speaks slowly, waiting for a reaction. Any reaction. But the man simply listens in silence as he talks and walks around the room, until Tony sits next to him and then he turns, looking at Tony as he finishes.

“You come from a family of thieves and butchers. And now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed.”

Tony feels like laughing, thieves and butchers just fine, although many of them would be offended by the name-calling, they are too full of themselves to recognize the truth of it. How many lives Zeus alone ended? Tony lost count after the tenth story when he was but eight years old. Does this guy know about the real him? …Oh, wait, he means Howard’s war-mongering and profiting. Right.

“Speaking of thieves, where did you get the design?”

“My father. Anton Vanko.”

Tony frowns, “Well, I never heard of him.”

“My father is the reason you’re alive,” and the man emphasizes that with a quick diversion of his eyes as they slide downwards, to Tony’s chest.

“The reason I’m alive is ‘cause you had a shot, you took it, you missed.”

“Did I?” Insert dramatic pause here. Tony almost, almost, rolls his eyes. “If you can make God bleed, the people will cease to believe in him. And there will be blood in the water. And the sharks will come. The truth, all I have to do is sit here and watch as the world will consume you.”

Tony flinches before his brain can kick in and makes him doubt his own thoughts… Is that literal or just a euphemism? It can apply for both but, in the first case, how does he know? Maybe Tony’s too paranoid… Only one way to know. Letting his magic flow free of the usual restrains Tony keeps it under, it wraps around the man and he breathes easier when the feedback lets him know this is just a man. A grieving man…who wants revenge because his father died without the fame and glory he thought he deserved, instead of Tony. Ivan Antonovich Vanko, Tony finds out, is just another man blaming him for actions he didn’t have anything to do with. How petty of him. Why did Howard have to create so many enemies that fuck Tony around all these years later? He’s getting tired of them.

“Where will you be watching the world consume me from? That’s right. A prison cell. I’ll send you a bar of soap,” he says and stands to go.

“Hey, Tony. Before you go, palladium in the chest, painful way to die.”

Vanko looks at Tony as he stands against the door, about to walk away. The look of vindication is what finally makes him laugh and earns him some startlement from the man.

“Dying you say? Wrong...” Tony snorts, turning a final time to Vanko. A twist of his wrist plays the cameras into a loop for a few seconds, giving him the time he needs to fuck around a little with Vanko before he leaves, in retaliation for trying to ruin him. Flames erupt around Tony, showing the God underneath. “You were right about something at least, mortal. I am a God,” Hephrodistus says with a wicked smile, putting a front that would make grandpa Hades grin happily if he were about.

Vanko jumps, standing and looking in silent shock, his attention centres on his chest though, on the new core Hephrodistus has. The change is obvious from the previous arc-reactor powered with palladium, blue and circular, to the star with a glowing golden core taking its place at the present time.

“And amongst other things, I’m immortal, so your plan is useless. They may cause me a little annoyance for a while after your stunt today, but in the grand scheme of things, it’ll be just a speck of dust flying around my peripheral vision, nothing to really worry about. Do you really think that after living for the last forty years around humans, I don’t know how to play them around for the best end results?” Tony laughs some more, a deep throaty chuckle that has Vanko shivering slightly. “I’m Hephrodistus, God of Fire, Pleasure and Creativity. Son of Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Grandson of Zeus and Hera; Hades and Dione; Cronus, Rhea, Gaia, Uranus, and Chaos!” He takes a second to admire the result of his words, enjoying the look Vanko gives him. “So, tell me, Ivan Vanko. What do you think it matters to me your petty revenge? Or other humans’ needs for reassurance in the face of the doubts your actions give them today?”

“This is impossible,” Vanko whispers in Russian.

Tony snorts and mocks the man in his own tongue, that Tony isn’t supposed to know, making the man freak out some more, “Impossible. To you maybe, little mortal. For Gods… there are no limits.”

“No, it’s impossible,” Vanko breaks down and stumbles to the floor, holding his head in his hands and rocking back and forth.

“Think twice before coming after me again, Ivan Vanko. Don’t make me regret letting you go this time with just a slap on the wrist, because next time you try playing with fire, you may just burn yourself.”

Hephrodistus’ body gets covered from head to toe in golden-blue fire for a second and Vanko whines at the sight. Returning to his human shape and unmaking the magic over the cameras, Tony knocks on the door and walks away. Leaving behind a confused group of officers wondering what he said to leave the previous stoic unknown man, a shivering mess in the holding cell.

Good thing he had all those years to learn from Zeus on how to act like a total dick...and Howard deserves a little mention for that too he supposes. Tony snorts as he comes out of the police station, if Zeus ever sees those memories, Tony may even earn a smile of appreciation from the old God. Trust Zeus to be happy when you put down mortals. The world is lucky Tony didn’t grow to have a big head like some of his family members or he’d be planning domination of the unsuspecting humans already.

* * *

Later that day, Tony returns to his hotel and observes the new ring he obtained with appreciation. When he appeared in front of the man to take the ring, he wasn’t expecting to be encased in a thick layer of ice that would’ve killed any common human. His surprise left though and took over the man intead as the ice melt under the onslaught of golden-blue fire bursting all over his skin. The man was so shocked that Tony walked up to him and took the ring without a struggle from the gangster.

He put a secrecy spell on the man before leaving him tied and with a fat dossier of evidence against him on his lap, imprisoned in one of the holding cells in the police station he visited earlier. Tony even took the time to tie a red bow to the gangster’s head and take a picture to remember the moment by.

Done reminiscing, Tony walks into his room and smiles. Christine looks edible in that tight satin dress she’s wearing, and he can’t wait to rip it off her as they make their way to bed.

“Miss Everhart,” he greets the woman as he takes the opposite chair to her, “So good of you to join me for dinner.”

Christine snorts softly, “When I opened the box with your gift,” she moves the hands down her torso slowly, “I didn’t know if I should be angry by your assumption that I’d accept, flattered you invited me again when that’s unheard of from you, Tony.” She smiles, “Or even surprised by your good taste in female fashion.”

Tony serves them champagne and winks at her, “I’m not done with the surprises yet.”

“Oh really?” She asks playfully.

“Really,” he says and takes her free hand in his, kissing her knuckles and sending a spark of arousal and magic when their skin make contact. She breathes in sharply as a result. “I talked Pepper about accepting that business arrangement with you for interviews, but, let’s talk about that later. Now, I want to offer you a different and personal business proposal. How do you feel about a relationship of mutual satisfaction?” Christine hums inquisitive, her eyebrows raising to her hairline. “I find myself growing tired of one-night stands lately…”

He explains his idea slowly as he raises to stand behind her, peppering kisses along the naked skin of her arm and making her lust skyrocket as his magic keeps wreaking havoc to her composture as wherever he poses his lips, his powers shot another wave of pleasure and overwhelms her senses. He explains he's looking for a no strings attached, temporal, and mutually beneficent relationship; with no expectation of dates, public exposure, monogamy commitment, or other undesirable baggage that usually comes from starting a relationship with someone. And later, as she gasps and wheezes, coming down from the high of two consecutive orgasms, she stumbles over her words as she agrees to his proposal, saying yes, please, and asking—demanding—more as she tugs his head closer. And well, he is the God of Pleasure, so he gives her as much of it as she can take.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another ring is found. Stern talks nonsense and Tony rebukes him. Apparently Fury lost his marbles with his last decisions, but convinces Tony to consult for SHIELD. Thor makes an appearance and, as always, his crazy luck saves his arse. Hulk shakes the floor a little and Tony watches with a pot of popcorn. Jane and Darcy pay a visit to Stark Tower. Obadiah's trial takes place and Vanko's gets a date for his.  
> Tony is oh so happy to have his plans come to fruition so smoothly!

“What is that?” Wesson asks, perching on the headboard of Tony’s chair and eyeing the ring on the table that Jarvis is analysing.

“A while ago I found another one like this after I killed those guys in Afghanistan, then another one during my second visit, and a third one in some secret temple in China that was publicly discovered some months later.” Jarvis finishes his task and starts computing the data gathered from the new ring. “Each one has different abilities.”

Tony uses small pincers to extract the gem from the green metal and immediately melts the ring, transforming the remains into a pretty filigree design that covers the gem. With all the stoppers gone, the gem shines and communicates freely, sitting on the necklace around his neck and alongside his ‘siblings’ in happiness.

“What does it do?” Wes asked.

“They, not it, Wes. These are the souls of warriors, captured a long time ago after they died in battle. I’m trying to find all of them, to free them from this state.”

“Oh,” Wes exclaims wide-eyed, “Is it possible to keep a soul after someone dies?”

“Sure,” Tony shrugs, “Thanatos told me about it a long time ago, although I never imagined I’d ever get a chance to meet someone in this state. Is a big no-no, or so Thanatos told me. Solidifying a soul to forbid their crossing to the afterlife is the worst kind of punishment, alongside destroying their souls, and both are a forbidden practice that only Lady Dead is allowed to do. Unless you want to invoke her wrath.”

“Database actualized, Sir,” Jarvis informs him a while later.

A new mark appears in the big holo-screen in the room, where a global map shows a red dot sitting in the eastern side of the US. Jarvis zooms on the location until only the southern half of Florida shows. Tony rolls the chair side by side and looks at the map in contemplation. Until now all the holders of the rings resulted to be important people; from the two Razas leading the war and fear mongering efforts in the orient, to an Asian couple of business man and woman leading the black-market of human trafficking, to the most wanted Russian gangster leader, and now someone else in Florida.

“Let’s see what new dregs of society we can bring into the light,” Tony comments and tosses a stress reliever ball from hand to hand with a grin plastered in his face.

* * *

> **_Stern:_ ** _It’s just unbelievable. It proves that the genie is out of the bottle and this man has no idea what he’s doing. He thinks of the Iron Man weapon as a toy. I was at a hearing where Mr Stark, in fact, was adamant that these suits can’t exist anywhere else, don’t exist anywhere else, never will exist anywhere else, at least for five to ten years, and here we are in Monaco realising, “These suits exist now.”_

“Do you have an answer to Senate Stern, Tony?” Christine asks him, twinkling eyes awaiting his reply with bated breath.

After that second meeting with the woman at the charity gala, when she helped him learn about Gulmira and the continued efforts to undermine his own safeguards to stop the deaths caused by his weapons, Tony got her number and started contacting Christine for any new press releases he did. Even Pepper agreed, after a few releases of Vanity Fair that Christine did with Tony’s name in it, that the woman was an acceptable choice, and since then Tony and her worked together to get the truth see the light about himself. He was pleased when she portrayed him in a, not exactly good light, but neutral, non-biased, and believable way. A good thing for his secret campaign to erase the old Tony’s diva performance.

And after their meeting in the prix, their relationship spiced up, but only behind closed doors.

“I could give you many answers, Christine. But, I believe you need a background of a few people first, if I am to answer Senate Stern.”

“You mean about the man that attacked you in Monaco?” Christine raises an eyebrow. “I thought there was little to no information that the police could find about him. Are you telling me you know more?”

“I had five minutes to talk with him thanks to the nice _policiers_ of Monaco, and he revealed to me the name of his father, Anton Vanko. Following this clue, I found out more about the man and his father. Information that is related to SI and its employees, which makes it non-available to the public, but I shared with the corresponding governmental factions to help in their effort to see this man face justice.”

“Is there anything you can share?”

“I can freely say that Anton Vanko and my father, Howard, worked together for a while. There are periodic reports of those years, available to the public, where the man is reported as a soviet seeking asylum and a few years later deported for spying. As things happened, he worked with my father, tried to sell in the black-market information about the arc reactor project they worked together to develop and lost his trial and refugee status as a result. His son is the man who attacked in Monaco; Ivan Vanko is also a physicist, was convicted of selling Soviet-era weapons grade plutonium to Pakistan, and served 15 years in Kopeisk prison before falling out of the radar.”

“So, this man, Vanko, was just trying to seek vengeance for his father?”

“I found out an obituary announcement of Anton Vanko’s death in Russia a while ago, so yes, I believe that’s what he was trying to do. I can only imagine what Anton told his son about me, or the Stark family in general, to make him try to kill me in revenge when I actually have nothing to do with Anton’s death or bad life choices. If anything, my father was the one to have a dispute with Anton, and even then, Anton committed the mistake of trying to illegally sell something that wasn’t solely his property in the first place.”

“Misplaced guilt,” Christine sighs.

“Exactly,” Tony nods at her. “It’s not the first time it happens if you care to remember the many times I was kidnapped or assaulted by angry ex-employees when I was young, but certainly the worst case until now.”

“What I can’t help but notice is that Vanko was able to recreate the miniaturized arc reactor you said it’d take years to accomplish…”

Tony smiles, “Well, I claim to be a genius, but not the only one in the world. Vanko told me that his father taught him about the arc reactor technology, so sure, if you get your hands in SI’s confidential information of course you can create something similar. When my father won the lawsuit against Vanko it didn’t mean that the man conveniently forgot about the information of the tech he helped develop, but that also doesn’t mean that I gave Senator Stern false information and knew someone out there had the know-how to recreate the arc reactor technology because I didn’t even know the Vankos existed until the Monaco incident.”

“And you learned about Vanko’s and Howard’s partnership afterwards.”

“Yes. After returning from Monaco I took a look around SI’s ancient archives to find more about Anton Vanko and get an insight about why some random guy wanted to kill me under claims that his father somehow knew about the reactor technology and was calling me a thief.”

“He called _you_ a thief?” Christine exclaimed in surprise.

Tony laughs, “Funny, isn’t it? He called me that when it was the other way around.”

“Going back to our starting point,” Christine says taking a look at her notebook with questions, “What do you have to say to the Senator, Tony?”

“Now that you have the background, you can understand how Vanko was able to build a similar technology to what I use for the suit. But the thing is, the miniaturized arc-reactor is just…like the batteries of a clock. Recreating arc-tech and recreating my suit are two different things entirely. Yes, Vanko knew how to make a reactor and created an ingenious technology with those whips of his, but the suit? Who knows how to make something like that?” Tony smirks at the photographer with satisfaction as he answers, “Only me, of course.”

The press release of that interview helps with the public image of SI and Tony’s. The people don’t turn a new leaf but become mellower in their previous harsh judgement. And the photo Christine puts at the end of the interview, of his mischievous grin as he speaks his final words, is the icing to the cake. Ah, to be a fly on the wall when Stern read the news…

During a celebration of one of his employee’s birthdays—he isn’t heartless, he lets them have their fun on days like this—he’s having a good time and showing off the suit—because, sheesh, he’s not entirely a saint either you know—and dances around as people admires the armour. Rhodey rolls his eyes at him when he catches sight of Tony, and Pepper smiles when he winks in her direction. People dance, drink and laugh. It’s a good night all around, so he retires to the penthouse with a happy smile and ready to dive directly in his bed… until someone jumps on him and heatedly kisses him.

Putting the phone back in his pocket and holding the woman against him with his free hand, they stumble onto the couch, reacting only when handcuffs click into place and the woman—Miss Rushman—walks away and sits on a nearby armchair. Letting him focus his attention on Nick Fury, who sits in front of him on the other couch.

Tony cocks his head, silent, and waits. It isn’t a long wait.

“Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff.”

Tony looks at the woman and nods, “Yeah, hi, we met.”

She smirks, “I’m a SHIELD shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury. Your employees didn’t make it easy though.”

“Oh, I know,” Tony surprises her with his calm answer, “I was actually hoping you got reassigned soon. They need to focus on their jobs, not sneaky spies wandering around.”

Agent Romanoff frowns, sharing a glance with Fury before she walks away and stands with the rest of the agents Fury brought along.

“You knew,” Fury comments, earning back Tony’s entire attention.

“Did you really think she got all her toys shipped in her room, _inside my building_ , without my knowledge?” Tony snorts.

Fury hums for a moment, “How are you still alive? According to our information, you should be, if not dead, on the brink. Otherwise, palladium poisoning suits you oddly well. In the meantime, you can also answer me some other doubts I have. How did you completely disappear from our radars, _for weeks_ , at the beginning of the year? How is it you look healthier than ever? And how did you get from Osaka to Monaco in minutes? I’m very curious, Stark. There are many inconsistencies here, since your return from Afghanistan actually, and I hate it. Either you’re dying of palladium poisoning and not acting out on your panic about it, or you’ve been replaced and aren’t actually Stark. Which one is it?”

“To be, or not to be…” Tony hums, enjoying the tick that develops in Fury’s eye. “You know,” Tony clicks his tongue, “For a spy, you’re oddly blind to a few things going on around you that should be obvious.”

“Care to enlighten me?” Fury scowls.

“You should send the kids away so we can talk freely. Uncle Coulson can remain for the grown-up conversation though.”

“Not happening until I confirm you’re not an impostor, Stark.”

“Then you’ll have to keep wondering what is inside the box, Pandora.”

They have a staring contest that Tony gets tired of quickly and he turns around looking for one of his bots because he’s sure that he’ll get maimed if he even twitches to stand up.

“Hey, DUM-E, be a dear and bring daddy a bottle of water from the fridge.” He snickers when the baby agents jump in surprise at DUM-E, as the bot rolls into the room from behind the door to the labs. “Damage my kid and we’ll have problems,” he warns when a twitchy agent gets a gun in his hand.

Fury sighs in front of Tony, waving a hand around and spitting in anger, “Get out, everyone!”

“Sir-”

“Out, Romanoff. Coulson, stay.”

One by one the little spies walk out, Romanoff the last one. Tony had to clap to the man, at least he has a few of them well trained.

“Jarvis, engage security protocols and scan the room.”

Fury huffs and Coulson walks to stand behind the director and slightly to the left.

“Twenty-three bugs detected, Sir,” Jarvis announces and everyone raises an eyebrow.

“You know what to do.”

A low hum is heard and the two spies shiver involuntarily as energy, that their bodies won’t recognise as it’s magic, fills the room for three seconds.

“House clean, Sir.”

“Good, make sure the kids don’t break anything while they are without adult surveillance, will you?”

“Very well, Sir.”

“What was that, Stark?” Fury immediately demands.

Tony smiles honestly at the two men for the first time and brings out his phone, breaking the chains with ease. The TV turns on with a tap of his finger and another causes files to start appearing as he explains to the stunned men what is it they are seeing. Once Fury is able to recover from the surprise, he is angry and wants to know how Tony got into SHIELD’s server, but Tony doesn’t answer. He continues going over everything he discovered since he hacked their servers the first time, all the inconsistencies he found, all the points that lead him to new findings, all the people involved in things they shouldn’t be, and the questionable missions and targets that don’t add up, and all the conclusions Tony can make from this information.

“To answer one of your questions,” Tony said during a pause while Fury and Coulson swallowed all the info, “I have an ability that lets me know if something, or someone, is dangerous to my safety in some way. It didn’t activate until I almost died in Afghanistan, and at first it confused me, but I know better now.”

“What kind of ability?” Coulson asks before Fury has the opportunity.

“You need to take care of those crazy molluscs invading your house first. I can’t trust that any information I give won’t end up in their hands otherwise,” Tony says and successfully avoids explaining magic to the muggles.

Fury keeps making questions long into the night and leaves with even more of them, but so few answered. But at least, Tony thinks that if he’s capable of cleaning the house after this hard blow, SHIELD can recover and be the truly good guys at the end of the day. As it was meant to be from the beginning.

Aunt Peggy would be so sad to see her life-project broken like this right now, but her safeguard of giving all those she thought she could trust an access code to get into any SHIELD server is helping now, so maybe she’ll be happy with Tony. He’s trying to help, in his own way.

* * *

Tony keeps an eye on SHIELD during the following months as they clean up. Things develop slowly but steadily and there seems to be a shining light waiting at the end of the tunnel for Fury and his crew.

In the beginning, there is an unexpected surprise though. At first Tony thinks he’s just seeing things, but when SHIELD’s records are updated and a picture of THOR appears in the new file under the name of ‘Donald Blake’ he can’t help but snort. The file is obviously fake, but Thor gets to walk out of the outpost without much fuss and Tony observes everything after he hacked the surrounding cameras.

It’s two days of crazy events later that four more Asgardians (insert scowl) appear after another Bifrost throws them in New Mexico, and things take a turn to dangerous. He sees everything from his satellite until Coulson calls and questions him about the ‘robot’ attacking the small city, but of course, it isn’t his. As if something as dull and ugly as The Destroyer (also so poorly named) can be Tony’s. Not. Likely! But then Thor makes a very dumb thing, that with his luck turns out to be alright (it only ever happens to the foolish blond, Tony swears!) and its hammer time when Mjolnir flies to the seemingly fallen goldilocks, who starts destroying daddy’s favourite toy.

And Tony would kill to witness the throne room when Thor reveals that to Odin. Ha!

At the same time that Thor left for Asgard, at Culver University, the Hulk goes on a rampage and… Tony is interrupted from seeing the end of it because Fury pays him another unannounced visit and starts talking Tony around maybe being a consultant, which he agrees to do only to get him to leave and return to the Hulk Smash Show. To his disappointment, Hulks runs off and he gets nowhere with hacking his way to information about it. But the next day bear fruits when there is another Hulk sighting. This time very close. As in Harlem close. So, of course, he visits and gets a front-row seat to the event, as well as the task of saving the unlucky bystanders.

The aftermath is very messy and full of SHIELD agents everywhere and he even gets to see Romanoff in action! So, as he returns back to the tower and the emotions wear off, Tony is still very interested in meeting one Jane Foster by the end of his Hulk induced high levels of happy hormones milkshake, so he arranges for them to meet later.

And… and… and… Is Fury bloody high or what? He restarts Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.! Just for that (and maybe for the unexpectedly annoying visits), Tony rearranges Fury’s phone to have the most embarrassing and crazy ringtones for the following week… after he leaves a note in his documents alerting the man of the dangers of messing with the _‘Tesseract’_. Should he visit home and warn the others about the resurgence of that thing?

…

Nah, he has more pressing things to deal with, besides, that’s Odin’s responsibility. If the old man fucked up, then Zeus will be somewhat happy and Tony doesn’t need to get in the way. Better to avoid contact with his grandfather, he may be still mad from their last talk. Nemesis knows the guy can hold a grudge.

* * *

A day or so later, while Tony worked to make Elon’s electric jet somehow work as they’re supposed to, he got interrupted.

“Father, Agent Coulson is calling,” Jarvis announces.

Tony sputters for a moment as his music was cut off and J starts talking nonsense. He knows better than to interrupt him for silly things like Agent calling while he’s in the middle of some of his favourite projects! But his line of thought is already broken, his idea slipping from his grasp like water, so Tony sits back against the chair and rubs his eyes while making a signal with his hand to allow the call to start.

“Stark, SHIELD needs your help with something…” Agent starts telling Tony about ‘The Abomination’ which isn’t all that inspiring if you ask him, the name needs a lot of work if they expect anyone to work alongside a guy like that without problems, and apparently Coulson wants him to talk to Ross?

He isn't sold on the idea about...very much anything, seriously, but he goes anyways.

The first thing he does is implanting a bug, of course. If they can’t protect their information from it, well, they should have gotten a better firewall, really. And when he’s taken to Ross, they talk… Or more like he talks and Ross throws back some delusions and bs back at Tony that doesn’t make a lick of sense to him but he keeps up the show... in the end, Ross almost popped a vein and Tony got escorted away from the facilities. It doesn’t matter much that his mission is a failure, Coulson gave him the vague idea that that was actually the gist of it. What is important is that Tony finally found a way to get inside information about what happened with Hulk and the Abomination, and oh boy was it rewarding!

He returns the call to Coulson and informs the man, a la Tony Stark, that Ross was a dick and the mission a failure, but just as he thought, Coulson sighs a little and doesn’t react beyond that so, as expected then. Overall, it was a success for whatever Coulson actually wanted out of the talk with Ross but didn’t bother to tell Tony about. At the same time, Tony’s personal goals got fulfilled, so, yay!

Returning back to a quasi ‘normal’ life, whatever that means for him anymore, he prepares for the arrival of his new science-bff in a few weeks. Her research is very interesting and they hit it right from the beginning when Jane finally arrives. It also helps that she’s in the company of snarky Miss Lewis who makes his day just on the first five seconds of knowing the girl.

Fury calls Tony mere hours after the two women settle in their new accommodations at Stark Tower and bores him for twenty minutes too long, complaining about hoarding the best scientist and taking Jane from right under his paws. Tony doesn’t care, Fury already got Erik Selvig for himself and Project Pegasus, so he’ll keep the overlooked astrophysicist and her snarky assistant for himself for as long as the woman can stay before her research takes her away.

And, that call earns the director another week of funny ringtones.

* * *

Tony is very, very busy in the following months as he is still in the search of the rings, that are more elusive than expected, and he only gets his hands on one more after the Remaker, that he recovered in Monaco.

Lightning was in the hands of a Yakuza organization. That he was able to get his hands on it was entirely by chance as he got a glimpse of the ring while he was visiting the solar that will become Osaka’s Stark Tower, and almost missed the gang surrounding an important-looking man with the ring in his hand, some distance away from where he was. It was only the spike of activity from the other souls which gave him an idea of what he was seeing at all.

Besides the continued investigation of the ring’s locations, Tony also got more visits from Eros and (surprise surprise!) Adrestia, his sibling slash cousin—and apparently Hela’s lover. She didn’t want to cause a scene like Hephrodistus did, which got him in his exile, and preferred to make her questions not so loud and got some interesting information from different Gods over the years as a result.

Between the two of them, they worked in corroborating first and foremost Hela’s presence in Helheim, which was a terrifying yes by the end of their prodding—carefully—of the ward that had Odin’s signature all over it. But what was worse was their final discovery, after much magic use and skirting around Odin’s complex spell-work, as it became obvious that Hela’s been trapped in the realm of the dead for over five thousand years! No wonder Yahweh warned Tony about Hela’s impending insanity.

Between Hephrodistus’ far in between—and short—contact with his wife over the course of their twenty thousand years of marriage; Hela’s private personality that kept Adrestia at arm’s length during their questionable and hard-to-label relationship; and finally Odin’s common attitude to keep secrets very close to his chest; it was no wonder it took the two of them five fucking thousand years to notice the absence and doubtful reasons for Hela’s disappearance.

It is no brainer now, and Tony understands better why, Thor called himself the ‘crown Prince of Asgard’—because Tony will be very surprised if the guy even knows of Hela’s existence to start with, after how long she’s been absent.

The presence of Jane and Darcy was also a big distracting factor for Tony. The research of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge theory Jane works with is interesting for him as he has no idea how the Bifrost, and other assorted travelling mechanisms developed by other civilizations, including his own, works. He asked Hephaestus many times about the nexus connecting Olympus to many other places, but his father has always been tight-lipped about everything regarding the construction of it. So, he takes the opportunity to study all the details surrounding the workings of that piece of science/magic/technology mix that he never had the chance to study before. He’s sure that Jane will freak out about the involvement of magic when Tony gets to explaining it someday, because if he’s sure of anything is that magic is needed to activate the bridge.

Another pressing and important thing he needs to take care of on a regular basis is his training.

After Zeus so helpfully returned all of Hephrodistus’ memories in one _painful_ go, he’s started training back up his usual level of stamina to be able to handle his big reserves of magic harmlessly once more. The easiest part was grabbing his messy memories and start re-shelving them, making sense of everything he knows, working on fixing the damage done to his mind by Zeus’ spell, and the traumas of his human life.

Then came the hardest part, training his body and magic. The two are connected and one can’t advance too much without the other. If he trains his body to its peak performance but not his magic, then the energy feels restless inside him, causing him to have a burst of uncontrolled magic as if he were a toddler without control. If he trains his magic but not his body, then the energy will develop in strength until it causes harm to his physical body as it is too much for it to handle. He needs to balance and train both in tandem or suffer for his mistakes in painful ways. Getting burnt by sudden bursts of uncontrolled magic is as bad as getting burned by trying to harness magic too strong for his body that leaves behind painful rashes.

Then, to keep everything interesting, the cleansing of SHIELD started to take strength and many individuals began to get lost with more frequency. It wasn’t only ‘common’ people that turned up missing after a couple of months, suddenly got lawsuits turning against them, or had their secrets aired not so privately to the authorities from one day to another; it also involved politicians, famous people, spies from every and each agency in the world, and any other important (and sometimes not so important) places in every corner of the world. He doesn’t get how Fury did it, but the man at the same time kept Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. in check, putting up many improvements to the security around the complex where the tests are being carried, and also the periods of time of contact people have with the Tesseract, be it directly or not. Personally, Tony worries more about Project T.A.H.I.T.I., but there is nothing he can do to stop it seeing as he doesn’t have much information about the World Security Council yet, and what is worse, Fury believes it to be important and is adamant to keep it going.

In the middle of so much drama and so little time, Tony finds himself attending (finally!) the trial of Obadiah Stane. After over a year of digging for information, discussing with his lawyers, capturing the rats following on Stane’s footsteps—or trying to, at least—that wanted to put barriers in Tony’s way, and planning for damage control when Adam’s circumstances of death are revealed to the public. The time finally arrives and Tony is more than ready for the event.

With a sweat dropping amount of evidence is presented, and his lawyers keep the magnificent work making sure the trial goes on as expected, Stane gets the sentence of a lifetime of imprisonment for all of his crimes. His PR team manages the setbacks from Adam’s dead masterfully too and there aren’t many problems in that front, so Tony has at least one less thing to worry about.

At the same time Obadiah is carted away, the announcement of Vanko’s trial in a few months makes the news and Tony smiles a satisfied smirk when he sees the pathetic and lacklustre image of Vanko being walked out of the first hearing by the police.

And finally, Stark Industries continues raising as the biggest corporation since they continue releasing new products, raising their stocks, and blinding the people with all of the projects developing from the many teams working at R&D.

It’s so good when all your plans are accomplished successfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of the Iron Man 2 Arc. I'm not sure about the end result but I don't dislike it either.
> 
> With the way Tony interacted with Justin and Vanko it seems to me that this is just right as it is. Without the strong Stark-Hammer animosity, Justin has no reason to bail Vanko out of jail, knowing the man has it out for Tony and not wanting to earn Tony's ire after their last interaction was somewhat good? Also, with the heavy-handed impression Heprhrodistus made in front of Vanko, the man doesn't have the guts to fuck around so much, and even if Hammer offered, I like to think his fear would keep him from helping.
> 
> Leave comments and let me know if you liked it, or if you didn't. See you soon guys!


End file.
